This book tells the history of Trotskyists from 1938 to 1945, focusing on their activities aimed at subverting the German army of occupation.
It considers the history of the French Left, the coming of war, the independent line taken by Trotskyists in opposition to the French CP, work aimed at influencing German soldiers, the potential for solidarity between and the potential for radical change at the end of the war.
It reproduces the text of publications that survived Gestapo aimed at influencing occupying German soldier. The author writes: What matters to us is to understand: what were people's aims and motivations?
With an appendix of the surviving collection of Arbeiter und Soldat and a fragment of Der Arbeiter in English translation.